“Trust first, discussion later”… how François Bayrou is trying to defraud the National Assembly and the French people

It was a hesitant and laborious François Bayrou who appeared on the set of TF1's 8 p.m. news on Wednesday evening. The Prime Minister, who called a vote of confidence for September 8 in the National Assembly, had clearly not anticipated that the left and the far right were planning to vote against it, which would lead to the fall of the government. "I repeat that confidence is not the right word," he tried to explain, assuring that "the vote that will be cast will be based on the observation of the seriousness of the debt."

Yet throughout the history of the Fifth Republic, MPs, following a general policy speech, have never given confidence to a government to validate an observation, but rather to approve a political direction. And this is precisely why opposition MPs have announced that they will vote against confidence in François Bayrou, who is planning an austerity package of €44 billion for the 2026 budget.

The Prime Minister seemed convinced that he had found a miracle solution by proposing a vote on this question: "Yes or no, does this situation deserve a response? Yes or no, is it serious?" But the deputies understood perfectly well that a vote of confidence was equivalent to support for the government and the policies it would pursue, even though François Bayrou strangely assured that once the vote of confidence had been passed, it would be possible to discuss. A given word that has no value, after his lies about the pensions conclave and during the Bétharram affair .

The Prime Minister may have therefore committed the first inadvertent political suicide in history. "There are twelve days left, that's a very long time to talk. (…). The parties will say to themselves, 'well, maybe we spoke a little too quickly, maybe we went a bit too far,'" he wanted to believe, hoping to convince PS and RN deputies to save him. But how, since the Prime Minister claims that there is "no other method" than his to reduce the debt, with a cure of 44 billion? "We have not opened negotiations because first we must agree on the findings. I am ready to negotiate on everything except on one subject, that of the effort to be made," he asserted.

The ludicrous interview showed François Bayrou causing his own downfall and incapable of understanding that he must change strategy as quickly as possible. The head of government, refusing to measure the consequences of the open political crisis with a possible dissolution in the future, then engaged in blackmail with chaos. "It will be in the history books, the country is crushed under debt, it takes away a significant part of what is produced every year, and we are going to vote against (this observation)?" he said, before asserting that "if we create chaos, who will be the victims? The youngest French people, who were led to believe that the debt had to be increased even further!" A debt that has exploded with Macron's policy of gifts to the wealthiest.

Locking himself in his lies and his attempt at instrumentalization by exaggerating the seriousness of the debt, in addition to affirming that he alone holds the solution to rectify the situation, the Prime Minister ended up saying that he is "putting the existence of the government at risk because things are too serious."

He apparently hadn't warned his ministers about this gamble. None of them were consulted, according to AFP. According to opinion polls conducted since then, 81% of French people want a new prime minister in the event of a vote of no confidence, 69% want the National Assembly dissolved, and 67% want Emmanuel Macron to resign.